>> michael: coming up, 45 years after his life ended his dream lived, his mash goes on. we don't always live up to the ideals set forth by martin luther king jr. but that does not mean that we stop trying. i'm michael shure. you're in "the war room." >> michael: 45 years ago today martin luther king jr. was assassinated. it was an event that had a profound affect on millions around the world and on the lives of two men in particular. michael cody was with dr. king in memphis in the days leading up to the assassination and knew

him as few others have. jerry mitchell is an investigative reporter and the preemptive on civil rights cases. before we get to them and martin luther king jr.'s legacy let's get caught up on the political headlines today. in connecticut just 111 days after the slaughter of children at the sandy hook elementary school, the gun debate is over. with the stroke of the pen connecticut governor signed into law one of the most strictest gun laws on the books. it is the country's own system to track offenders and the ban now includes high capacity magazines. it's a start for parents who lost children in the shoot shooting. >> i can't tell you how much it means to us that our voices have

been heard. we said from the outset that we want newtown to be known not for tragedy but for transformation. this law marks that turning point. >> michael: it's so effective when you hear the parents speak. governor malloy made it clear there is still so much to be done in other states and at the federal level. >> in some sense i hope this is an example to the rest of the nation. certainly to our leaders in washington who seem so deeply divided about an issue such as universal background checks where the country is not divided itself. >> michael: while the rest of the country is waiting for some sort of meaningful gun safety legislation we now know the extent of mitch mcconnell's mixed priority. yesterday the top republican in the senate sent a letter to the food and drug administration demanding to know if generic prescription drugs are

tamperproof. i don't doubt mcconnell's sincerity to solve a problem that is plaguing people in kentucky and across the country but we have to remember that in the 111 days senescent hook 3293 americans have died as a result of gun violence. one of those victims was eugene crum who died when someone killed him while he was sitting in his patrol car. the suspect's father said his son had had mental health issues. as crum fought painkillers, he was killed by bullets. guns kill more americans each year than do painkillers. it's time for mitch mcconnell to lead his caucus for meaningful gun legislation, not just chip around the edges.

now to the president who gave a climate reality check. we remember him touting big plans to combat global warming but now he's suggesting how difficult following through will be. he got an ear earful from keystone protesters. while the president has yet to approve the construction of the pipeline that will move oil from canada to texas many suspect that he will. inside the president did not mention keystone in his remarks but he did say that his administration will have to figure out how to marry the economic concerns of working families with the environmental agenda, and how to show that they're not contradictory notions. focusing on climate change while many american families are struggling is politically tough but still no word by keystone. the decision by the administration is expected this summer. we're starting to see the fallout of sequestration.

the first to feel the budget cuts are the elderly. only 2% was cut from the medicare but with what was small on paper was a large problem for cancer clinic across the nation when cuts were put in effect on monday. thousands were turned away. those drugs and doctor visits fall prey to the sequester cuts. now for the threat from the outside from north korea. how big of a threat is it. it range from the scary to the sublime. south korea's defense ministry said that the north korea moved a missile of considerable range to its east coast closer to the american interest. this is in response to a potential chemical attack. the sublime, a battle is taking place online where the u.s. has an unlikelially. the hacking group anonymous took over north korea's twitter page.

the usual tweets were replaced by a hacked and tango down. the group also took credit for mischief on north korea's flicker site. it posted an pig-looking kim jong-un with a tattoo on his chest waster money while his people starved to death. joining me now from new york city to separate the crazy from the crazy serious the author of nuclear showdown, north korea takes on the world. welcome back inside "the war room"," gordon. >> thank you. >> gordon, today the north korean army released a statement saying quote, the moment of explosion is approaching fast. the u.s. had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation. what should we make of all this tough talk that we're hearing coming out of north korea now? >> well, this tuck is talk is bluster but it comes at a particularly

bad time. kim jong-un has not conned sosold dated his position. the army is upset because a number of generals have been relieved and so things could really go off the rails. also, no other leader in the region can back down because in south korea the military is just sick and fed up of accepting blow after blow from the north koreans and not doing anything, and in china you have a troubled position where the military is more powerful. the chinese military has traditionalcally supported north korea. what we have is a volatile situation where these blustering words from kim jong-un. >> michael: with all this conflict from north korea, how does it effect us? is this possibly an opportunity that hasn't existed in north

korea for some sort of change if the army generals are all upset with kim and everybody else is upset with kim, is that possibly a good thing? >> well, it could be. i mean, some people believe that kim is sort of appeasing the generals so he can go out and implement economic reforms. we got to remember in all of these threats and everything that we've seen over the last week a reformer was named as premiere of the north korea. and so in a sense that's a good sign. there's a lot going on right now. a lot of it we don't know. but the big thing for us is if this goes beyond april 15th, which is 101st anniversary of the founder of north korea if it goes beyond april 15th then we're in dangerous territory. then i believe this is different from the years we've seen in the past. >> michael: wow, that's really something to pay attention to, that april 15th date. i didn't know about and it's interesting to know that that's so important.

now let's take a listen to what departmentdepartment of defense chuck hagel had to say just yesterday. >> it only takes being wrong once. and i don't want to be the secretary of he defense who was wrong once. >> michael: i like those words but how safe is the pentagon playing it right now? >> well, as we've learned from the wall street journal the pentagon is dialing it back. we've seen over the last ten days b-52s, b-2s flying over south korea. we've seen raptors in exercises that are ongoing. we're not doing that to intimidate the north koreans but to reassure the south koreans who have lost confidence, and while we reassure the south koreans the north koreans feel

provoked. we've seen less emphasis on the military exercises going on in the south. this is a very fine line to walk. it's not really about us. it's about the militant nature of the military and regime. no one wants to trigger armageddon. >> michael: i sort of feel like if it was another world leader we would be taking that world leader a little more seriously than kim. but the idea of going in, even if under the guise of protecting south korea, is that a smart move. do you think we would be taking these threats differently if they were coming from another nation? >> i know there is a growing concern in washington, especially because he's 29 and inexperienced, he doesn't know where the line is in all probability, i think in the last couple of days there is growing concern about with what is going on there. this is a volatile situation. you know, people can make mistakes. kim jong-un's father and grandfather, they were killing

americans and south koreans but they knew what the line was so they didn't retaliate on a number of incidents. but now the situation has changed and kim jong-un may not know how far he can push other countries. that's why you have got a lot of leaders there who can't back down, and it makes it very difficult for the north koreans toto gain what they're doing. >> michael: now do they know that the world is mocking him? does that play into his calculous. >> they know that in north korea by now and they're probably very pissed but there is very little that they can do about it. the north koreans believe in cyberwar. they've cyberattacked the south koreans two or three times in the last few weeks. they probably think anonymous is an arm of the u.s. government, which is probably not going to be good. but what can you do? people around the world can do

these things and the u.s. government can't stop them. >> michael: that's gordon chang, thank you for coming in "the war room." coming up, the way it is. the aryan brotherhood is considered the most violent gang in the entire u.s. prison system. a very scary thought given their competition. and then the way it was, 45 years ago today martin luther king jr. was assassinated. michael cody was with him in memphis on that fateful week. we'll join him why his recollection and it's what happened after the days of the assassination that concerns reporter jerry mitchell. one set of fingerprints and a lot of unanswered questions. it's "the war room" and we'll be right back.

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er. >> michael: ever two texas par prosecutors were gunned down in months the police are looking at whether the aryan brotherhood is hyped the killings. the brotherhood called the most

violent extremist group in the united states was the target of a federal investigation late last year. 34 of its members ended up behind bars indicted on murder, racketeering and drug conspiracy charges. district attorney mike mcclelland was killed along with his wife, was part that have investigation. two months after he was killed his top assistant mark hasse was killed outside of a courthouse. after hasse's death mcclelland had around the clock security, but that ended last month. since 2000 the group has been tied to 3 dozen murders and has threatened many more. a former prosecutor and judge said he has received death threats. he cold khou that the threats were carried out by the aryan

brotherhood or a mexican drug cartel and they were meant to send a message. >> yes to not only limb nate the investigator, but to intimidate anybody else, keep your distance. that's not going to work. that won't work in texas. >> michael: we go to the senior fell lowfellow who has been following the air ran brotherhood. is the aryan brotherhood of texas different from the aryan brotherhood nationally? >> withit is. it's entirely different. the aryan brotherhood was formed back in 1964 in san quentin in southern california, and grew over the years to really become a national white supremacist prison gang. the aryan brotherhood of texas was formed in the early 80s in texas, and in fact, it began

when a group of white inmates petitioned the aryan brotherhood for permission to start a state chapter in texas and were refused. they went on from there and simply formed their group and gave it a similar name. so once-- >> michael: go ahead. >> i was just going to point out that actually they are known to be responsible for more than 100 murders, and at least ten kidnappings since they were formed in the early 80s. they really are incredibly violent, and quite certainly the violent extremist prison gang in the country. >> michael: yes, it is now turned into--we have a way of thinking of organized crime but this is, in fact organized crime. how organized, in fact, are they, and are they capable of pulling off this type of crime? >> well, first of all fundamentally an organized crime body, as you suggested.

as opposed to an ideological group like the klu klux klan, a hate group. how organized are they? they're quite organized in the sense that they're able to direct a real criminal empire outside of the prison walls typically by leaders who are in prison. many of the so-called shot callers, the generals of this group are, in fact, serving life sentences, sometimes even solitary confinement, yet they're able to get their orders out on the treat street. they're fairly organized. they have sophisticated systems using verbal and written codes. wives, girlfriends, so on to get the word out from themselves and on to the street. >> michael: some experts are skeptical that they would want to take on the police in this way because that would lead to a crackdown on their entire organization. does that make it less likely that they did this type of a

crime? >> well, i certainly agree, it's an extremely surprising kind of thing to do if they did it. you know, if it turns out that the aryan brotherhood of texas is behind these killings it seems obvious that the entire way of the criminal justice establishment will come crashing down on their heads and the group will very likely be obliterated. yeah it seems outside of the norm for sure. for american criminal organizations and in particular these racist gangs. if there is involvement by mexican cartels, we know those people have been very willing to murder prosecutors, police officers and politicians and so on. >> michael: that has been suggested, it was suggested by people in texas by law enforcement that that's a possibility. although, you know, with everything--with the person who was taken in for the crime in colorado and so much of what is happening behind prison bars it makes you think--i don't know,

it sounds more organized than that. i want to know, the southern povertylawcenter, are you following their every move? are you working with law enforcement q. i'm asking this question from the standpoint of what it's like when you go to work every day to do this. >> the truth is that we cover these racist prison gangs but we cover them less heavily than the more explicitly political groups that are outside of the walls, the aryan nations the klu klux klan, those types of groups. fundamentally we're a civil rights group, and we're looking at groups that are enemies of the 14th amendment and other kinds of protections of the civil rights. we're interested in the prison gangs because they absolutely do have this quote/unquote aryan overlay but really these are mafia organizations organized

syndicates. we don't really follow them day-to-day but it's hard to ignore the group like aryan brotherhood of texas which has laid down quite a track record over recent years. >> michael: the crimes that we're hearing about now do they pose a huge threat to our criminal justice system over all? >> well, i don't know about a huge threat, but certainly if this kind of thing becomes any more common at all than it is now, it would be quite amazing. something like 20 prosecutors have been killed in the united states in the entire last century. these kinds of attacks are incredibly rare in our country. it seems to me that if they became more common as they most certainly are in mexico, we would essentially be looking at a war. i don't think that that's likely. we're not mexico. the state is considerably better organized, i think here. but it is a possibility. >> michael: for sure and from

where you're sitting what needs to happen to disempower a group like the aryan brotherhood? >> well, frankly i think that law enforcement in general and federal law enforcement in particular has been working very hard over the last five, six seven, eight years to bring down these groups. there have been several very major racketeering indictments brought against the aryan brother of texas against the larger aryan brother group, and the m 11 crew, and other racist prison gangs. one has to go after them on the basis of actual crimes. you can't simply toss these people in jail because they have unpleasant racial views or whatever it may be. sad to say, i think they're doing as well as we can hope for. >> michael: that is sad to say. mark potok thank you for joining us in the war room.

joining us here, looking at the legacy of martin luther king jr. on the 45th anniversary of his death. we'll do that with a than who fought for equality along with dr. king. that's next right here in "the war room."

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[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> michael: as we continue to mention today marks the 45th anniversary of the assassination of martin luther king jr. organizing a march for black sanitation workers who were striking for job safety as well as wages and benefits. but the city of memphis filed an injunction to deny the workers their right for assembly. martin luther king reached out to michael attorney michael cody and he prepared for the worst. >> are we going to let a water hose turn us around?

we're not going to let an injunction turn us around. well, i don't know what will happen now. we've got some difficult days ahead. it doesn't really matter with me now because i've been to the mountaintop. >> michael: prophetic words, of course the next day martin luther king jr. was assassinated, never knowing the injunction had been lifted. the series is called "the march goes on" and 42,000 people marched. the evening was a turning point in the struggle for civil rights. joining me tonight is the lawyer responsible for lifting the instruction, michael cody. he was present for martin king's speech. michael has devoted his life fighting for civil rights and it's a great honor to have you

with us in "the war room," michael. >> thank you, i need to correct that--i was helping the real lawyer. >> michael: that's right. >> i was help be the senior partner. >> michael: you were part of the firm, and you were there. you were there for the unforgettable mountaintop speech. what was going through your mind when he said they weren't going to let any dogs, water hoses or injunction to turn them around. >> that put a lot of pressure on us because people didn't want king to march in the face of a federal injunction. the federal courts had protected the civil rights movement, and i got the call initially from the aclu that the people in new york who were concerned that king not have to march in the face of a federal injunction. our job was to get it lifted so that he could march with the protection of the federal court. >> michael: and so tell us about that.

tell us about working with king. tell us the days leading up to it, and what it was like being around him in those days. they were tense days. >> yes, they were tense days, but they were short for me. i really wasn't with king until the afternoon of the day before he was killed. i received the call asking my firm to be involved in lifting the injunction the morning of april 3rd. i went in and got the senior partner in my office and asked him if he would do it, if i would carry his bags and do what i needed in research. we met that afternoon on the third with dr. king and his people. there were four or five lawyers and jesse jackson and king and andy young and others who on the other side, two beds, knee to knee at the hotel lorraine.

we talked about the importance of the march, and prepared ourselves for the injunction hearing, which would take place the next morning. that meeting lasted an hour or so and later as i work with andy young and jim lawson, the witnesses we were going to use later in the evening i went over to the speech dr. king made, and stood there at the side and listened. it was a most emotional speech. part of it, the weather conditions in memphis were such that tornadoes were moving in the area. rain was hard. it was hot. people were crowded in the church. it was a packed audience, and the emotion of king's remarks and what he was talking about matched with that weather literally made your hair stand on the back of your head. >> michael: you know, michael

some say king had a premonition about his death when he stated that there were tough days ahead, but that it didn't matter because he had been to the mountaintop. when you heard those words is that what made your hair stand on end? >> no, i don't think so. i i don't think i had any sense that he was aware that this was the last speech of his life. i knew he had been in threatening circumstances before, and he talked about death being near, but it was only after it happened that those of us who were there began to wonder if he had that premonition. >> michael: let's move to the next day then, the day we commemorate, today when did you learn the day king had been shot? what was that day like for you? >> well, it was a full day. we started in federal court at 9:30. again, lucius burch, our senior partner, putting on their case.

at 4:30 that afternoon the judge, the federal judge called us into chambers. he said that he was going to lift the injunction, and for us to go back to the office and prepare the order and to present it to him the next morning, which would have been april 5th. so i took andy young, who was one of our witnesses and later the mayor of atlanta, u.s. ambassador to the u.n. back to the lorraine motel so he could tell dr. king that we had been successful. by the time i made my way to my house, i heard on the radio that dr. king had been shot. initially it didn't say that he had been killed, but just saying that he had been shot. that's when i rushed in to my house. i pushed the swinging door open to get to the telephone in the kitchen, knocked two teeth out

of my two-year-old son's mouth. as i was putting ice on his lip the police chief called on the phone and talked about the violence and disorder, and the looting and fires that were starting as a result of news of king's shooting. by that time his death. he asked me if he could have the police come to my house and take me back down to the strike scene, the clay burn temple, where kids had gotten up in the top of the church and throwing paving stones at the police. the police were going to go in with tear gas to get them out of the church. the police were afraid if that happened there would be another bad situation. and asked if i would go down and ask jim lawson, the local minister, who is the strike leader, to get him to talk the kids out of the church. so they took me down there and

i found dr. lawson. >> michael: what was that like getting down there. we can't not it's not loss that you were a white man in memphis going in that part of town with the police having things thrown at the police. how did you feel when you were downtown then. >> well, i didn't think very much about it until the police car left, and i think anyone, whether they're black or white would have been apprehensive at the scene there liquor stores were being looted. glass was being broken, fires were being set. it was an unsafe situation for everyone. but we had the benefit of ministers like jim hooks and jim lawson who got on the radio who very quickly told them that violence was the worst way that dr. king would want his death to be remembered, and non-violence

is what he preached his entire life, and that people in memphis should respect his wishes and not resort to the kinds of things that he fought all his life to prevent. >> michael: your story is an unique american story one that very few people have. i appreciate you coming into "the war room" to share it and talk to us about it. it's a very interesting conversation from memphis tennessee. we turn to the days before mlk's assassination to the days right after. many questions of what happened in memphis and who was involved, including the owner of a mysterious set of fingerprints. there are questions that has always bothered jerry mitchell, who will be joining us from tennessee. we'll talk about that next.

>> a martin luther king jr. the apostle of non-violence in the civil rights movement has been shot to death in memphis

tennessee, police have issued an all-points bulletin for a well-dressed young white man seen running from the scene. officers also reportedly gave chase and fired on a radio equipment car containing two white men. >> michael: walter cronkite's infamous broadcast of dr. king's assassination in memphis, had a years ago today. a convict would escape from missouri's state trips and was arrested at london's heathrow airport. he eventually pleaded guilty to the murder and then said he had been set up as farther of a larger conspiracy. he spent the rest of his life trying to get a jury hearing and died in prison in 1998. to this day questions remain whether ray acted alone. joining me from jackson

mississippi is jerry. he wrote "the mystery of the un unidentified fingerprints in mlk's murder." thank you for being here. >> good to be here. >> michael: is there reason to believe that ray did not work alone now? who were the open groups calling for assassination at this time. >> there were a number. you had the white knights of the klu klux klan of mississippi. they were intent on wanting to kill king. at one point king was marching through mississippi and they hatched a plan to try to blow up the bridge that he was going to be walking across. the fbi found out about this, you know, a klan informant told them about this, and king took

another route. the white knights definitely wanted king dead. >> michael: you wrote the one time chief council on the committee of assassinations said thoughtful people today, not just nuts, believe more people than james ray were involved. blakey thought fingerprints should be run. what other fingerprints that have not yet been identified. >> well, those fingerprints that have been identified include those that were found on these registration cards. there were two men who gave aliases, not their real names who stayed at a hotel that was less than a minute from motel lorraine. they acted very suspiciously and their movements were reported to the fbi that night but the fbi was never able to track down who those guys were, but they have

their fingerprints. >> michael: now the fbi last ran fingerprints in 2000 and they failed to match most of them. what is different today that might yield more clues than in 2005? >> sure, the fbi and other law enforcement agency have been in the business of collecting fingerprints you know, this was kind of a new age coming in to digital, being able to take these fingerprints and analyze them digitally and run them through the system. the database is much more robust now. millions and millions and millions more of fingerprints now that they can be connected to and checked against. and we didn't have that back in in 2000. so there is certainly value in that. >> michael: and in your effort, and in your investigations and reporting have you found any reason on the part of fbi's interest of reopening the case? >> i haven't heard the fbi reopening the case. i know the king family asked

them to reopen the case during that time. they kind of did a cursory look, a limited look and came back and said oh, there aren't any leads. and left it at that. they didn't really conduct a formal full investigation in this case. that's where it stands today. >> michael: you bring up the king's family. it's my recollection if it wasn't unanimous most of the king family feels that james earl ray was not the killer or certainly didn't act alone. is that right? >> i think that's absolutely correct in terms of their feelings about it. and you have a number of people out there who believe that it's not that ray is innocent, but there were others, in fact there was a bigger plot that was taking place. >> michael: yes, there was a compelling book written by hampton sides who said hell hound on his trail that chased james earl ray. >> yes reconstructed james earl

ray's movements i guess you could say. >> michael: i came away from-- >> it's very good. >> michael: it read like a spy novel. i came away thinking that this guy did it. >> you read that book and there's no question. you come back and say yeah, he did it. there is no question about that. there are things that give rise to questions like ray before he left the missouri prison was aware of the bounty that the white knights of the klu klux klan had from mississippi available to kill king. there was a bounty from a st. louis businessman who was involved in white supremacy who wanted to kill king. ray, i don't think there is any question was really motivated by money. i think he thought if he killed king he would get some kind of payoff for this. and so i think that certainly was in his thinking, and it was involved in this, no question

whatsoever. >> michael: for sure. you get a lot of your career has been put in on exclamation point on some of these cases in the past. let's say that former or current members of the kkk are implicated by new fingerprint testing. what legally or otherwise could happen? >> well, if those individuals were alive then i think that would be something that you want to go back and weigh the evidence. do you know where that individual was? did he have an alibi at the time? let's say he didn't. the fbi did try to ascertain which klansmen had alibis and which didn't. i think there would be things like that you would want to look at. certainly a lot of individuals from that time might not be around any more. even if it was the case of someone who was deceased, held at least help to fill in the gaps of trying to find out.

it's important for history sake if nothing else. >> michael: yes, well, no one is more of an investigative journalist than jerry mitchell. he has followed thighs these cases for such a long time. thank you for coming on the show today. it's an interesting way to look at today. >> thank you. >> michael: we pivot back to the world that dr. king left hand and to the jaw-dropping places where segregations is not a thing of the past. stick around for that.

>> michael: martin luther king jr.'s legacy is about as much fighting racial justice as it is tackling another insidious problem--poverty. he came in support of striking an says workers in memphis, and i called for workers across the world to rise up and claim their freedom. it's a powerful message and still resonates today. in new york city, 400 fast food

workers went on strike, and it's no coincidence that they chose today. they're hoping to tie their fight of pastor income to his. they met with two surviving members of the 1968 sanitation strike. here is one of them, alvin turner offering his advice. >> if you don't stand up, you'll continue to get what you get. if you don't stand up you can kiss it goodbye, and if you do stand up, what you're doing is opening the door for somebody else. >> and on the streets of new york city today they did stand up, just as the 1968 strikers had. they even used the same slogan, i am a man. but today they also included, i am a woman. small steps to a larger justice. joining me now is aisha moodie

mills, policies adviser for the center of american progress. she joins us from washington, d.c. welcome back inside "the war room." >> hi, mike. >> michael: income inequality has gotten worse since dr. king's time. the purchasing power is lower than it was in 1968 according to the national employment law project. have we made good on king's legacy? >> well, not yet. if there is anything we've learn learned, there is more work to do. the rights passed due to his efforts was only one of the issues he was struggling toward. the next big step was around working on poverty and working on issues of economic justice. so we know that there is a whole lot more work to be done. >> michael: you know, he is such a civil rights icon. should we be linking king to economic equality. >> i think we should be thinking

about equality much more broadly in terms of what true justice and equality is in our society. it's not just having legal civil rights. it's actually having the same opportunity and access to be able to participate fully in our society. so there are young people who are not getting the same education, that still is inequality. that's still injustice. if there are lgbt like myself who are not treated fairly under the law that's injustice. if there are people dramatically less they're not protected by labor laws, that's injustice. the lesson by him is that there aren't these siloed off ideas about equality and silver rights until everybody is treated equally and have the same opportunities, the same ability to climb the ladder here in the united states, then we still have inequality that needs to be tackled. >> michael: part of that inequality, you see it when you look at economic mobility. it seemed to have plateaued for

african-americans. only 23% of black americans surpass their parents wealth while 56% of whites do. >> i think we should start framing workers rights as civil rights. but we need to get a bigger picture and have a conversation about what is thwarting the progress to economic mobility. we can't talk about economic justice without talking about the prison complex and the incarceration of young people. we can't talk about economic equality unless we talk about what is happening with regard to our educational system that african-american young people are stuck with. and so these conversations and policy solutions need to be much more well-rounded to think about all the different indicators that feed into the economic status of people here in the united states. >> michael: yes, it's clearly not as cut as dry saying one

thing, that we need one thing. there is so much that forms the way it works. there is a real disgusting story that came out of georgia, a high school in georgia that is reportedly holding segregated proms. it's not new. >> they have been. >> michael: it's a few students are pushing to have an integrated prom this year but can you believe it's 2013 and we're reading about this? >> i actually had a friend who brought this to my attention several years ago. he was doing silver rights works in the rural areas of georgia. it's unbelievable. but it's real. it's happening. i think--i'm so thankful this has taken flight in the media again because a lot of us in america say well, that was something of yesteryear. that was 1960 when we had segregation. jim crow laws created that. but the reality is we still have these types of segregateed

institutions. and there is more subtleties in institutional segregation. when we look at how black people and white people are divided we should raise an eyebrow and figure out what is happening socially. >> michael: no question. we can't say it without talking about the progress. the fact that we're talking about it, it's viral news now that this is happening in one place is progress. this is news. before it wouldn't have been news in macon, georgia, that this was happening. 45 years ago lyndon b johnson signed the gun control act. this was passed in reaction to the assassination of king and rfk. why are we still fighting this fight now? >> that's a million dollar question. i think that as we see--progress is certainly a marathon. it's not a sprint. there are going to be forces that will try to hold back and

pull back progress, and it ebbs and flows. i think the lesson goes every time we move forward there is going to be perhaps a step back but we should continue to be hopeful and keep our eye on the equality that we're trying to achieve and move forward. the justice that we have in macon, we have these segregated promise and we have an african-american president. that i dichotomy exists. hopefully these issues will continue to be fewer and farther in between. aisha moodie-mills thank you for coming to the war room. someone is always in "the war room" online. rest in pizza piece to roger ebert have a great night and we'll see you back here on monday. [ ♪ music ♪ ]